“I just came for the two months’ vacation,” said Alomar, now the Mets bench coach.

Alomar discounts that season, which is the reason the 65-year-old says 2009 is his 49th year in pro ball, rather than No. 50.

To put it in perspective, just a few current coaches or managers have been in professional baseball as long as Sandy Sr. — Joe Torre (50 years) and the Dodgers’ Manny Mota (53), to name a couple.

“I love the game. I love doing it,” Alomar Sr. said. “I don’t think that I would be doing something that I wouldn’t love.”

Yep, Alomar has been a fixture in baseball. He has played for six organizations — Braves, Mets, White Sox, Angels, Yankees and Rangers — and he has coached for four organizations — Padres, Cubs, Rockies and Mets. He also has been a third base coach, a first base coach, a bench coach, a bullpen coach and a roving minor league instructor.

Plus, he has two sons who had terrific major league careers. Robbie probably will end up in the Hall of Fame, and Sandy Jr., the Mets’ catching instructor, shares a clubhouse with Sandy Sr. and has managerial aspirations. In a sense, the Alomar family is to baseball what the Manning family is to football.

When you’re 65, people might wonder when you’re going to retire. Take a permanent break, hit the links every day and so forth, but Alomar Sr. said he doesn’t feel like hanging ’em up, at least not yet.

“I just felt like as long as I feel healthy and that I could help, and that I could pass my knowledge to the younger players, I felt like if the people wanted me around, that I will be around,” he said. “It’s up to the people. I’m healthy, I’m working hard. I continue to pass along some of the knowledge that I do have. And so far I feel like I have a good relationship with players and with people around.

“I feel like I can still contribute. And I feel like I’m still doing everything. I throw batting practice, I hit my fungoes, I pass my knowledge, I feel healthy and I don’t think that I’m hampering anybody. So if I’m hampering somebody, then it’s up to the people just to decide.”

Somehow, during a career spanning nearly five decades, Alomar Sr. has never won a World Series — he was on the 1976 Yankees, who lost to the Reds in the Fall Classic. And though he has managed three different minor league teams (with a combined record of 154-124), he has never managed in the majors. But, Alomar Sr. insists he never had the desire to manage at the top level.

“I feel like I was more born to instruct,” he said.

The ideal job for Alomar Sr., however, might never come. Imagine if Sandy Jr. one day was named manager somewhere, and named his dad as bench coach, but Dad swears he will be retired by that point.